Chapter 3
Cherry, Jennifer, and I walked outside to greet Antwan in the driveway. Their driveway, like ours, was big enough for two, maybe even three cars. In an excited state, Cherry rushed over to his new car and leaned into the open passenger side window. "Oh! Antwan, it's beautiful! I love it, I really do!" she was practically buzzing with excitement. Meanwhile, Antwan was sitting there in the driver's seat talking on his cellphone. His facial expression and demeanor portrayed that his phone call was an important one, and he seemed a little annoyed at Cherry for interrupting him while he was engaged in the phone call. He shot her an impatient look and held up his hand to her as if to tell her to give him a moment. Cherry looked a little hurt and embarrassed by that, but she got the message. Standing up straight and running her hand through her hair she began walking back over to Jennifer and me.
"Antwan's a little busy right now. He's on a phone call," she said. Her upbeat energy was no longer present, and her breathing was a little scattered. You could visibly see that her nipples were erect inside the tight white blouse she was wearing. "Let's go back inside, Antwan will meet us inside when he's done. Antwan is really busy sometimes," Cherry said.
I looked at Jennifer with a facial expression that said 'what the fuck', in reference to how coldly Antwan waved Cherry away from him. Jennifer looked back at me with a shrugging expression.
Cherry kept speaking as we followed her back inside the house, "Antwan gets really immersed in his work at times. Running a club isn't easy. Antwan said that he doesn't trust anyone else to run the club. Antwan always says that if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself." Cherry's voice was a little nervous and rushed as she spoke about Antwan and his business.
We walked into their kitchen, and I took a second to look around. Cherry's gold bracelets clanged along the countertop of her kitchen island as she reached for the bottle of red wine that Jennifer gave her earlier. She opened it and poured the wine into two separate wine glasses for Jennifer and herself and handed Jennifer one of the glasses. She was now smiling again as she looked at Jennifer, "Cheers, babe!"
"Cheers!" Jennifer took a sip of wine and looked at me, speaking, "Tim and I are glad you invited us over. Their place is beautiful, isn't it, Tim?"
I leaned against the island countertop, nodding, and looked from Jennifer to Cherry, "It is, you've both got a beautiful home, Cherry."
Cherry looked at me as though she forgot I was even there, and due to the fact she didn't pour me a glass of the wine, it suggested she might have.
"Oh, thanks, Timothy. I keep the place tidy and in order, but it was Antwan that designed the place. Antwan is very meticulous with the placement of everything," Cherry explained, "and all the artwork in the house is Antwan's choosing."
Just like in the living room, and the hallway, the kitchen also had a very Africanized theme, it was a theme that seemed to run throughout the entire house.
"I did notice the theme of this place, was Antwan born in Africa?" I questioned.
Cherry shook her head, "No, Antwan was born here, but Antwan's parents are Nigerian. His father was a politician but died a long time ago. Antwan says his father's death was suspicious. Antwan says that white people didn't like seeing a black man becoming so powerful in politics, so they played dirty."
I tried to lighten the conversation up a little, "That's very unfortunate to hear, but thankfully that kind of thing doesn't happen anymore in this day and age, and everyone can get a fair shot at things."
Cherry rolled her eyes as if I said something stupid, "Antwan gets pulled over by the police almost every time he goes out for a ride in the car, just for being a black man. Those white losers in uniform can't stand that a black man is way more successful than they will ever be."
It seemed like everyone had a political opinion today, I just politely sort of nodded. I did find it a bit rude, though, how she referred to cops as 'white losers'. I looked at Jennifer, and she returned a look that suggested to just shrug it off.
Cherry topped up her and Jennifer's glasses of wine. She turned to Jennifer, "Come, babe, I need to go outside for a smoke."
---
Left by myself leaning against the island countertop, I was more or less twiddling my thumbs. I looked across the countertop, out of the kitchen window. The kitchen window had a full view of their backyard. There was a patio area, with a table and seats, and in the distance, there was a large pool with loungers. Their backyard was very similar to my own backyard in terms of its layout.
The ladies were sitting at the table on the patio, chatting. Cherry held a cigarette between her index and middle finger, bringing it to her mouth and lighting it. She took a big drag, her large heavy breasts rising as she inhaled deeply and then falling, as she blew out a large plume of smoke. She then continued to go off talking to Jennifer about something I couldn't hear from inside.
I was eyeing the bottle of wine, I could have done with a glass of it, the day was feeling very long, and I was feeling tired. That's when I felt a big heavy arm wrap around my shoulder. I turned my head, it was Antwan. I hadn't even heard him walk up on me.
"Ahh, so you must be Timothy," he said with a deep black man's voice.
I was a little startled as I turned around to look at him. He was wearing a black shirt that exposed his chest area, a black belt, and some black dress trousers. I offered a friendly smile, and reached my hand out for a handshake, "Hey there. Yes, I'm Timothy, and you must be Antwan, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."
He left me hanging on the handshake, and instead placed his hand on my shoulder, and squeezed it, looking at me. "Been taking care of my girl while I've been gone?" he said, smirking confidently, which showed off his teeth. One of his teeth was gold-plated.
He had an unnerving presence about him, the tone of his voice had a sort of an authoritative air about it. It also didn't help that he was taller than me, so I had to look upwards up at him as we talked. He kept his hand placed firmly on my shoulder as I replied.
"Cherry, yes. She's great, I'm glad Jennifer has made a new friend so soon, she nor I don't know anyone around here." I said, feeling a bit uneasy around him.
Antwan seemed disinterested in what I just said, and instead was looking out the kitchen window at Jennifer and Cherry. "Ay, Timmy, grab us a couple of beers from the fridge" he nodded at the fridge across the way, letting go of my shoulder, and headed outside to the patio area.
I really didn't like being called Timmy by someone I had just met, and I would have much preferred just being called Timothy or Tim. I also didn't appreciate his demeanor in how he spoke to me, nor the fact he told me to grab a couple of beers. It wasn't so much that he told me to grab the beers, but rather how he said it. I found his tone to be a bit rude.
I looked out the kitchen window and saw Cherry snubbing out her cigarette in an ashtray as she saw Antwan approaching, she quickly stood up and walked over to him, her big tits jiggling as she walked. He wrapped a single arm around her, and she leaned in against him. From my vantage point, I could see that the palm of his hand was spread out and squeezing one of Cherry's ass cheeks through her skirt.
Opening their fridge, I saw a 6-pack crate of beers in the fridge and took them out, holding them under my arm. That's when I heard their front door close with a bit of a bang, someone else must have entered the house. "Ayo, Antwan!" it was a voice I had not heard before. A few seconds later, a black man began walking through the kitchen area and out to the patio area where everyone else was. He eyed me up and down but didn't say anything. As he went out the back door to the patio area, I heard him laughing and say to Antwan "You know there's a white boy in your kitchen stealing your beer?" I looked through the kitchen window, and everyone, including Jennifer, seemed to be laughing at his joke.
I walked outside with the crate of beers, the black man with the jokes seemed to hand Antwan something, and they got engaged in a conversation. Cherry and Jennifer were also chatting among themselves. When Jennifer noticed me walking out into the patio area, she stood up from her seat, and came over to me, giving me a quick kiss on the lips.
Being far enough away from the rest, we had a moment to chat with each other.
"Love you hon," she smiled up at me.
"Love you too, babe. Are you having fun?" I asked.
She nodded, "I am, did you meet Antwan meet each other?"
I nodded back, "Yeah, we had a brief chat in the kitchen. He's a bit..." I paused, "He seems alright." I said.
She noticed my pause, and poked me on the tummy, "You'll both get along, I'm sure."
"How long are we staying? I'm a bit tired from the drive." I said, looking at her.
"Hon, we haven't even had lunch yet, Cherry was just about to serve it up. Let's stay for lunch, and then we'll call it a day." She looked up at me with her big bright blue eyes. I leaned down and kissed her on the lips again, and we hugged.
The other black man began walking back into the kitchen, "Aight, Antwan, I'll see you later," he said. Antwan piped up, "Ay, and Darnell, call me when it's done."
Darnell piped back, "You got it." and then walked through the kitchen, down the hall, and out the front door, exiting their home.
As I was still hugging Jennifer, I heard Antwan shout over to me, "Timmy, you gonna hold those beers until they're warm, or you gonna bring them over here?" I gave Jennifer a look that expressed I couldn't wait to be done with getting to know the neighbors.
I went over to Antwan, handing him a bottle of beer, and took one for myself. "There we go," he said, popping open his bottle and downing it all in one swig, and opening another bottle a few seconds later. I then attempted to make conversation with him about his new car, "So, got a Bentley? I got a glance at it, it's a nice one."
He didn't even acknowledge what I said and instead smacked Cherry on her fat ass, asking "You got lunch ready?"
Cherry jumped from the smack, "Yes Antwan, I made prawn cocktails, they're in the fridge. They're being kept cool, just the way you like them."
Antwan fondled her ass a little, she giggled and peered up at him, biting her lip. He smacked her ass again, "Aight, go serve it up, it's time to eat."
She hurriedly made her way back into the kitchen and began setting out lunch for everyone. Jennifer went with her and helped her set the table.
Antwan looked at me, though it felt like he was looking through me. "Jennifer was telling me you a computer nerd the other day when she was over here. That right, Timmy? You work with them computers?"
There was no chance Jennifer referred to me as a 'computer nerd', and instead almost certainly just mentioned that I was a programmer and worked with computers.
Shrugging off him calling me a 'computer nerd', I replied, "I work as a programmer for a software company, and that's been my job for the past decade or so. I've always had a keen interest in-", Antwan didn't let me finish, and started talking over me.
"I got a laptop I want you to take a look at for me, I got a lot of important information on there, ya feel me? Piece of shit keeps turning off every time I start it"
"Sounds like it could be an overheating problem or something. Fixing it could be as simple as giving it a quick clean."
"Aight, well, I'mma have you fix it for me", he said, walking through their back door and into their kitchen.
His tone, the way he was talking to me, and how he just cut off conversations, was really starting to piss me off. I'm a very easy-going kind of guy, and not much usually gets under my skin, but I found him to be very distasteful.
---
We all sat down around their kitchen table. It was a rectangular table, Antwan was sitting at the head of it, Cherry was sitting to his left, Jennifer was sitting to his right, and I was sitting beside Jennifer.
Antwan was already tucking into the prawn cocktail, as were Cherry and Jennifer. I was in a bit of a predicament, as I was allergic to seafood. Jennifer saw I wasn't eating, and then remembered, and began to tell Cherry, "I forgot to mention it, but Tim can't eat seafood, he's allergic to it."
Cherry looked up, "Really? I've never known anyone that was allergic to seafood. Antwan loves seafood, don't you, Antwan?" Antwan was scrolling through his phone and didn't reply as he munched down his food.
She didn't even offer me anything else, but I really didn't want a fuss to be made over it, "Oh, don't worry about it. I'll just get something when we go back to our house." I smiled, hoping we could just move on.
